“Whoever wants to be crazy and understood, even celebrated, just be an artist. Such craze is frequently considered part of the creative process.”
By
ILHAM KHOIRI
·6 minutes read
CORP COM KOMPAS GRAMEDIA/IMMANUEL ARDELL
Daniel Kho
So was the answer given by Daniel Kho, 67, when asked why he had chosen to become an artist. The life and creative process of this figure has indeed been full of adventures, winding paths and also surprises that are practically “crazy.” However, the “rowdy” behavior is just strengthening his fervor to keep pursuing the artistic journey.
We chatted at a café in the Bentara Budaya Jakarta (BBJ) cultural center on Tuesday afternoon (17/1/2023). Accompanied by his close friend who is also an artist, Ito Joyoatmojo, Daniel felt comfortable to talk until late at night. He related his various crazy instances during his global exploration. That evening, Daniel was preparing a solo exhibition titled OwALAH at BBJ on 19-26 January 2023.
At the opening of the exhibition on Thursday evening (19/1), Daniel was showing off his “crazy” conduct. He was wearing a sort of robe adorned with gold tinted ornaments, a big necklace and eyeglasses with blinking green lamps. “Owalah,” he said several times, to which the audience responded with laughter.
Unlike Daniel’s thoughts and behavior that tend to be “crazy,” his work is just exhilarating. “Happy art” is the term he picks to delight people.
In the main display room of BBJ about 50 works of art are shown, mostly paintings, as well as several sculptures and installations. The majority of his work represents a group of weird aliens from never-never land. Some resemble grasshoppers with antenna-like ears. Others look like iguanas with goggly eyes and jutting long tongues or like chickens in bamboo baskets.
Instead of being frightening, the strange aliens are just funny and cute. All the work was created with fine and clean finishes. They have bright colors of yellow, green, red, orange or pink. The presence of these creatures makes people realize that humans do not live alone in this universe.
Some of his work portrays trees. These trees have plump and bending branches. Hanging from the branches are colorful aliens.
We are reminded of the tree of life in shadow puppet stories in the form of the mountain triangle. Daniel tries to reconcile modern rationality with Javanese ethnic tradition. “My work is based on the Javanese philosophy that is modernized. It’s a kind of ethnic pop art,” he said.
CORP COM KOMPAS GRAMEDIA/IMMANUEL ARDELL
Daniel Kho
Exploration
Daniel freely combines the west and east after going through a long exploration. He was born into a trading family in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1956 and brought up in Klaten. As a child, he was very critical of various things. While in primary and secondary education, he moved from one school to the other.
“I used to ask, why is the sky blue? Why do humans live on earth? Unsatisfied by my teachers’ answers, I moved to other schools,” he recalled.
Outside of schooling, he was fond of various artistic expressions of Javanese culture like batik-making, carving and painting. Art made him feel different from his peers. He was interested in being seriously engaged in art.
I used to ask, why is the sky blue? Why do humans live on earth? Unsatisfied by my teachers’ answers, I moved to other schools.
In 1975, at the age of 19 Daniel daringly left for Australia, traveling by sea from Papua. In Sydney he was employed to dig telecommunication cables. Earning a fair sum of money, he bought a car and with his Aboriginal friend he toured the zone of the Australian indigenous people.
The car was sold and he used the money to fly to France to study art in 1977. During the flight, he was acquainted with a German. While in transit in Frankfurt, the acquaintance offered to let him stay in Stuttgart. Daniel then lived in the industrial city of Mercedes-Benz.
European life refreshed his spirit. Daniel later roamed Venezuela, Poland and countries of the Mediterranean Sea by riding in a car or truck on the road. His fate was uncertain. While traveling by truck in Jordan, he encountered sturdy nomads wielding long swords. He was safe after cooking delicious food for them all.
KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO (TOK)
Painter Daniel Kho at the opening of his solo exhibition entitled 'owALAH' at Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, Thursday (19/1/2023).
Daniel returned to Germany to study art and design on three campuses in different cities. With his diplomas from those campuses, he worked as a designer and made a good living. But from the 1990s he decided to become a free artist. He always mentioned in his curriculum vitae that he studied art and design as an autodidact.
It was not easy to build a career in art in Germany. Frustrated, he burned his wooden sculpture. He had actually created it painstakingly and somebody had bid a high price. Yet he was persistently determined to be an artist.
At one time, his paintings were bought at a high price by an influential German collector, which opened his next opportunity. Several entrepreneurs routinely collected his work.
Since 2012, he has lived in three places: Bali (Indonesia), Barcelona (Spain) and Cologne (Germany). He hires a studio in Ubud. In Barcelona, he is supported by an art gallery. In Cologne, he has a studio. “I want to maintain an open mind. In Barcelona, I speak Spanish. In Germany, I behave as a German. In Bali, I think as an Indonesian,” he said.
OwALAH
At the BBJ exhibition, Daniel presents the theme OwALAH. This is an expression of surprise when one finds something unexpected, but realizes it is something common.
OwALAH encourages us to be prepared to face various shocks. Do not be easily taken by surprise. What is regarded as something new may even be our own forgotten history.
If humans are willing to use 100 percent of their common sense, life in the world will be better.
Curator Asmudjo Jono Irianto noted that Daniel had often used eccentric terms tending to scorn, such as the titles of his shows Mboh (I don’t know), Dobos (bragging) and OwALAH. The meanings of the terms serve as the bases and outlooks of the artist’s creative process.
Daniel is down-to-earth and tends to be cynical about the paradoxical human situation and behavior. Humans are the most intelligent beings but also the most destructive in the world, toward fellow humans, other living creatures and the environment.
“If humans are willing to use 100 percent of their common sense, life in the world will be better. Still, humans frequently create difficulties for themselves,” Daniel laughingly added.
Daniel Kho
Born:Central Java, 1956
Education:
- Primary and Junior High School, Central Java
- Senior High School in Bandung, West Java
- Autodidactic batik making, sculpting and carving
- Ring design, interior design and fine arts in several cities in Germany
Awards and art activities:
- From 1977: moving and living in Germany
- 1998: Scholarship from the Jacob Eschweiler Art Foundation
- 1999-2006: Teaching art in the “MUS-E Artists in Schools” Project di Germany
- 2002: founding the “Shadow Theatre Kho” in Cologne, Germany
- 2009: initiating Djagad Art House in Bali
- Since 2012: lives in Bali (Indonesia), Barcelona (Spain), Cologne (Germany)
- Several solo exhibitions and many joint exhibitions in a number of countries like Portugal, Germany, Indonesia and South Korea
- Latest exhibition: “OwALAH" at Bentara Budaya Jakarta, 19-26 January 2023
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